I am a C6/7 quadriplegic. I broke my neck in a motorcycle accident 17 yrs ago. I am paralyzed from mid-peck down. I have weak hands, weak triceps, and lats. My biceps, deltoids, and traps function normally. I do some resistance training to keep muscle mass but can only use light weights and resistance bands because of shoulder and elbow joint/tendon pain.

Due to my spinal cord injury, my metabolism is slow. I try to keep my caloric intake to around 1500 a day. I am 6' and about 185 lbs. I recently turned vegan and have lost about 10 lbs of fat and have about 10 more pounds to go. The problem that I am having is that I am finding it difficult to eat enough protein with exceeding my overall caloric requirement and feeling stuffed all of the time (and eating too much fiber). I have already noticed a loss in muscle mass.

I currently eat hemp protein shakes in the morning w/ soy milk. Green leafy salads and raw veggies w/ humas. Lots of brown rice, beans, split peas, and quinoa. I gave up dairy products about 6 months ago as well as fast food.

Prior to going vegan, I used to eat whey supplements to get enough protein. So my question is:How can I get enough protein without eating too much volume of food? Should I be getting 90 - 100 grams of protein a day based of my size? With a huge amount of guilt, I am considering whey or fish for additional protein. Please help!

Well a quick way to get another 10 grams would be to replace the hemp protein, since most hemp 'protein' powders are only 60-70% protein, while rice or soy powders will run 90-95% protein. Other than that you seem to have a solid diet. What about tofu, tempeh, lentils, and nuts? You could cut down on the rice a bit and replace those calories with some higher protein foods?

One of the best protein powders out there is gemma protein isolate. You can get it from trueprotein.com for 5 bucks a pound. That's a lot of protein. You can mix it with hemp and rice if you want (there's a link for making your own mix). Also there's like 30 different synthetic vegan flavors (I'm currently working on 60% gemma 30% hemp 10% rice with chocolate chip cookie dough flavoring). It even tastes good mixed with water.

Another choice if you have the $$ is Vega whole food meal replacement which is similar (gemma/yellow pea being the main protein source) but also includes a bunch of other things like chlorella, a berry mix, all your vitamins and minerals etc. and is about 260 calories before putting in liquid. Vega also has a protein-only mix for athletes which is probably cheaper, I haven't tried it.